I My Me! Sour Dough Buns
by Compulsive Writer
Summary: Set both 53 years before and directly after the events of the anime, Sour Dough Buns delves into the hearts of Chieko Sannomiya and Fuko Kuzuha as they duel mixed emotions spawned by betrayals of the heart and a promise for the future.


**Chapter One: Love Is All -- Present Day**

Fuko Kuzuha slept very little the night before that fateful assembly, but she somehow found the energy to rise from bed, stumble into the shower, and prepare for that long, frustrating track uphill to Seito Sannomiya Private School. That day, she felt as if she were committing herself to the gallows for some hooded executioner to string her up by the neck. She felt constricted, as if her very heart were being squeezed in her chest, draining all that was left of the life pulsing through her veins.

Whatever the emotions tearing at Fuko's heart, she felt neither hatred nor anger for the man who had deceived her, pretending to be her kyoshi, only heart-wrenching confusion. There was nothing she could say when the others insisted she forget about Hibiki-sensei, and accept the fate that had been thrust upon them all. The words were lost to her before she could even begin to comprehend their meaning.

Had it all been for nothing? Was the woman who had shown her so much over the past few months nothing more than a fake, a perverted, barbaric fool who wanted only to get close to her and her classmates? Was Hibiki-sensei a lie? That certainly seemed to be the case, especially when no one else seemed to think any differently. Fuko longed to understand, to gain some semblance of closure, even where there was none.

Sitting amongst her classmates in the Assembly Hall, Fuko wept in the empty cacophony of her own thoughts, though she shed not one tear anyone else could see. The whispered thoughts of her peers swept in waves of distrust through the crowds without a second thought. Fuko's unease grew. Something was terribly wrong, though she couldn't for the life of her discern what that might be, and realized that it must be her confusion at Hibiki-sensei's betrayal.

Two seats down to her left, one of her dear friends, Miho Umeda, twisted around in her seat to peer off into the crowd. Behind the sea of students sat their families. There were hundreds of people in the hall. Miho looked to Fuijio Himejima, who sat between her and Fuko. "This is a big deal, isn't it? This assembly."

Fuijio nodded. "Yeah, but everyone knows what's gonna happen."

Fuko figured her friend was probably right. Frowning heavily she turned to the front of the hall, to the stage, to see the Vice Principal rising from her chair, facing the principal and the director as she volunteered a respectful bow. Then she started off across the stage to the podium. The assembly was set to begin, and Fuko's heart was starting to pound. For several long moments, it was the only sound she could hear in her entire little world.

"Attention everyone!" the Vice Principal called in a crystal clear yet grating voice, with a tone that reminded Fuko of fingernails clawing a blackboard. "We will now begin this special school assembly."

The girl fought back a tear. Everything was changing. Everything _had_ changed.

And now the boys were to be punished for a crime they were no more responsible for than they were for the sun rising at dawn and setting in the evening. She let her gaze settle on the young men she had grown to know over the past two years. Their expressions showed dejection; the pain was like that of a knife being driven into her heart. She glanced to her girlfriends and felt the knife twist even deeper. She bowed her head in sorrow.

"And so," the Vice Principal was saying when Fuko finally peered up again, "it is our belief that this school should become a girls only facility. However, we do not want the decision to be made only by the principal, director, and faculty members. We'd also like to obtain the students' and family members' consent today."

Someone whispered behind Fuko; she recognized the voice as that of Indigo class VP Sumire Amagasaki. "But who in their right mind would oppose it?"

Fuko wondered.

Miho was thinking about something else entirely. "Yeah, but with the boys gone, who's gonna do the cleaning?"

The question stole the attention of two of the boys in front of her—Kyosuke Aoki and his closest friend, Syoichi Iwaya. "Hey Ume, what're you saying?" Iwaya demanded. "That we're just your cleaning crew now?"

Her rebuke was cutting. "What, didn't you know that already?"

Aoki groaned as he practically collapsed in the chair he was already sitting in. "If Hibiki-chan were here, she would have helped us with the cleaning."

Something within Fuko stirred. She stared in surprise at Aoki, grasping momentarily for an understanding that was just beyond her reach. They _were_ doing the right thing, weren't they?

Aoki jerked up in his seat. "Hey, that hurt!"

Did Akira just _kick_ him? Fuko leaned forward, studying Aoki with a long face. "Watch it," Akira warned under his breath.

The Vice Principal's voice rose up again over the din. "We will take a vote on the subject now, but to help you in your decision, we'd like all of our students and their family members to see Hibiki Amawa's true identity."

The widespread cacophony of shock, betrayal, disapproval, and disgust swept through the crowd as expected. Fuko could only stare up at those same images projected onto the screen over the Vice Principal. She felt no anger toward Hibiki even now, and the shock had faded for her considerably. Now there was only confusion.

"That is not the only crime this man has committed. He forced our female students to wear buruma in order to satisfy his own perverted desire." The Vice Principal held up a pair of red buruma from a box behind the podium. Fuko felt a protest bubbling deep inside her, but it slipped away and was gone with the Vice Principal's next outburst, as she threw the buruma into the box in fury. "That man is a savage! He's a shameless, lying, false kyoshi!"

Silence rang over the throngs of people for a long time as she let her statement sink in. With a smirk, the Vice Principal seemed to realize that it was time to snare the trap.

It felt overwhelmingly like a trap to Fuko.

"Now, if anyone here is opposed to Seito Sannomiya becoming an all-girl school, please stand up."

Fuko lowered her eyes. But then, just as she thought that the trap had sprung, the Vice President scoffed into her mike. "Excuse me, ma'am," she said tartly, "but I don't believe you're a parent of anyone in this school."

"I'm that man's deputy. You see there's no way he would have sit still and agreed to such a stupid idea." Fuko spun her head around to see Lulu Sanjo standing on a chair at the back of the assembly hall. She felt a shiver running up her spine. It was the first she'd heard so much as a peep in favor of the man who had been the catalyst for the turmoil the school was now going through. Strangely enough, it was a _woman_ fighting for him, just as it had seemed back then that Hibiki-sensei, that woman who was not real, had fought for Indigo class.

"A deputy for that criminal?!" The Vice Principal was clearly outraged.

"It's true he was a complete fake when it came to being a woman," Lulu admitted as she crossed her arms over her chest. "But how was he as a kyoshi?"

For the first time, Fuko considered that one word: _kyoshi_. Her eyes widened as her mind worked fits around the question. The chaotic rhetoric of the past day evaporated as she allowed herself to picture Hibiki-sensei, her kyoshi, in her mind. As she set aside the lie, a thousand truths and more slammed home with the ferocity of a thunderclap. Fuko shot to her feet in a rush and stared in shock across the hall into open space, the vision of Hibiki-sensei clear in her mind.

She slipped past Fuijio and Miho and into the aisle, starting toward the back of the assembly hall, toward the image in her mind.

Fuko tripped–

[_"Go for it! Jump from there!"_]

–and hit the ground hard.

When she opened her eyes, the vision of Hibiki-sensei was already fading. She heard the approach of footsteps behind her, and knew that it was Fuijio and Miho, coming to help. She didn't want help. Her eyes were glistening with realization. What they were doing was wrong. She understood that now; all her doubts had been cast aside.

"Fuko Kuzuha! What are you doing?!"

She ignored the Vice Principal as she forced herself onto her hands and knees.

"What happened?" Miho asked, her voice thick with concern.

Fuko was staring at the floor, miserable. "She helped me. That moment was not a lie." She said those words with more conviction than she had ever spoken with before in her life. Pushing herself to her feet, Fuko turned and walked past her friends toward the stage, newfound determination guiding her with unexpected ease. She felt somehow calm despite the knowledge that every eye in the room was upon her.

She strode up onto the stage.

She knew what it was she had to do. She had come to understand… now it was time to show everyone else the truth.

She moved up to the podium and without a word lifted the microphone, ignoring the Vice Principal as she turned to face the crowd. Fuijio and Miho stood where she had left them, staring at her in shock. Everyone waited; she felt as if she stood naked before them. In a way, she decided that she did.

Fuko cradled the mike in both hands and fought to get out the first word: "Hibiki-sensei." It was weaker than she had intended. She swallowed hard and started over. "Hibiki-sensei… she helped me run fifty meters without falling down for the first time ever."

It was a simple truth, a statement of fact no one could deny, especially those who had been there to see the impossible. She hoped she had them there with those words… she needed desperately for all her classmates to understand.

"Sensei always shared all of our problems with us," Fuko continued. "Hibiki-sensei helped the boys out with their cleaning duty." She squeezed the mike all the tighter as another truth came to her. Her heart burst with joy at the simple yet wonderful memory. "Hibiki-sensei spent all of parents weekend with me!" Her smile brightened the room. Her audience sat silent, transfixed. She had them all then, and she knew it. "Hibiki-sensei fought for us! Hibiki-sensei protected us! Hibiki-sensei… she always took care of us."

The Vice Principal was at her side then. She felt the older woman clawing at her, fighting with her, trying to rip the microphone from her hands. Fuko had a strong grip. She was determined to share her message: "Hibiki-sensei… Hibiki-sensei believed in _all_ of us! Sensei isn't a fake! Sensei isn't a liar!" Her voice was suddenly thick with unshed tears. "Sensei… I love my sensei…"

"Stop it!" the Vice Principal shrieked. "Give it back to me!"

Fuko was stunned to see people in the crowd rising to their feet. She recognized her classmates first. There were others as well, their parents and a smattering of other students throughout the crowd.

The Vice Principal stared and then scoffed. "I see! So all of you are opposed. However, the overwhelming majority is still…"

That is when pandemonium ensued.

Indigo class did not care to stand by and let the Vice Principal manhandle their smallest and weakest classmate, the classmate who had the biggest heart behind her small bust. Instead of waiting to hear what the Vice Principal had to say, the entire class rushed the stage, led by Akira Fukae, the one Fuko had known from the onset of her revelation would be the first to come to her side. Her heart swelled with pride to see that Fukae was followed not _only _by a couple of his male friends, and not _only _by just the boys in the class, and not _only _by the other boys and a few of the girls, but _all_ of her Indigo class peers, together. Gender had no meaning now. Now, they were of one mind, one vision.

Fukae rushed headlong into the fray, plowing through the Vice Principal and separating her from Fuko. Before Fuko could say anything more hands ripped the microphone from hers. Miho's voice rang loud and clear through the assembly hall.

"Sensei, we're sorry!"

Fuko's heart ached with the sincerity of those few simple but powerful words.

Seiko Kasuganomichi seized the microphone next: "We forgot about all the wonderful times we shared with you!"

Syoichi Iwaya followed: "It doesn't matter if you're a man or a woman!"

Strong hands tore the microphone away from Iwaya. Fuko felt her heart hammering in her chest as the tallest on the stage—in fact, the tallest boy in Seito Sannomiya—Aoki, lifted the microphone to his lips. "Hibiki-chan!" He held it in for a long moment before he poured all of his emotions, as well as the emotions of the entire Indigo class, into his decree: "_Come back!_"

* * *

Chieko Sannomiya sat dumbstruck as she watched Indigo class storm the stage. More so than the rebellion taking place before her eyes, however, the principal of Seito Sannomiya Private School saw something she hadn't seen in a very long time. Indeed, the last time she had seen such devotion to one individual on the part of a whole had been many long years ago, when she herself had been a mere student in this very school and her grandmother, the school's founder, had been the principal.

These were not students who wore the cloak of shame at having been deceived, but rather the proud, devoted innocents standing up for someone they truly believed in, for someone whose time with them had been precious despite the lie that had threatened to tear them apart.

"Love is all," Chieko whispered as she watched Indigo class standing up, one and all, pleading for the return of their departed kyoshi. But that was impossible, wasn't it? This was a man who had made a mockery of her grandmother's school, after all, the institution she had built for the sake of the children who would earn their education within its walls. Her grandmother had only done everything in her life for the sake of the children. Indeed, for Seito Sannomiya, love had been all. For the students standing on the stage now, love was all.

Their devotion to Hibiki Amawa was admirable, if misplaced.

Though the Principal had to admit, some of what Fuko Kuzuha had said when she'd had the microphone made sense. That man had indeed fought for Indigo class. Ever since Chieko had discovered the truth she'd decided that he had simply argued with her for argument's sake, trying to worm his way into a position of superiority, as was the way of brutish men. But now, after hearing Fuko's speech, she was beginning to doubt her own convictions.

She considered the man's crimes. It was true the buruma had a practical purpose, whereas the skirts as the official gym uniform worn prior to Amawa's hiring were horrid for athletics. The thought of that man having forced those girls to wear buruma was appalling… until Chieko considered the _improvement_ of the school's physical education program over the course of Amawa's tenure.

She remembered Fuko on that day Amawa had first come to the school as a woman.

After Amawa had murmured a few words into her ear—the Principal had never known exactly what was said—the small girl had bunched her skirt up around her legs after numerous failures to run 50 meters without falling down. It was then that she had actually _succeeded_, much to everyone's amazement. Chieko's heart twisted a little in her chest. Perhaps the test had been unfair, now that she thought about it. Still Amawa had succeeded. The Principal had as much as admitted once that she had been a competent teacher… all the more amazing now that they had learned that _she_ was actually a he.

She heard the Vice Principal somewhere in the masses, screaming for security, and the hall doors slammed open as the uniformed guards of Seito Sannomiya raced in, dashing down aisles to do her bidding. Chieko sat staring as they rushed the stage and closed in on Indigo class. Very soon it would all be over.

One of the men snatched Fuko's wrist, and Chieko heard her yelp a classmate's name.

Before a struggle could ensue, the miracle that Indigo class so desperately sought finally came. And when Chieko heard that voice, she understood, finally, that the love that the children of Indigo class felt for their departed kyoshi was truly returned to them a thousand fold.

"_Everyone… thank you._"

Just like everyone else in the assembly hall and throughout the facility, as well as everyone who could hear her, Chieko lifted her head to the sound of Hibiki Amawa's voice, the female voice, and felt her heart skip a beat.

"_Thank you for calling me sensei again. I'm grateful._" Even over the loud speakers, the deep emotion in that singsong voice was evident. The children of Indigo class cried out for their kyoshi, and fled the stage, brushing past security without a second thought. Searching for her… or rather, searching for him. "_I'm sorry for lying to you,_" Amawa continued, "_but I truly loved all of you… and cared about you._"

And then, her voice heavy with sincere gratitude and deep love, Hibiki Amawa began to list off the names of her entire class. She didn't neglect to mention a single child. She spoke the names almost wistfully, as if caught up in the memories of those precious days they had spent together. Chieko Sannomiya could not believe her ears, but the truth was there, laid bare before her, and there was no denying it now.

"Love is all," she murmured. "Even for that man, love is all."

Indigo class was gone now, but the voice of Hibiki Amawa remained, speaking to her students with the same love and thoughtful instruction with which she had always done… with which _he _had always done. Suddenly Chieko was unashamed of her hire.

"_I think it's better if I leave now,_" Amawa said, her tone thoughtful. "_Kyoshi and student… men and women. We're all human beings, and yet… certain feelings arise between us because we're not the same. And there are too many questions I don't have the answers to. I'll be ashamed of myself if I don't try to find those answers._

"_So I've decided, someday, I will come back, after I've found my true self and earned the right for all of you to call me 'sensei.'_"

Chieko rose from her seat then, silently watching the stunned crowd in the assembly hall, listening to the sound of that voice offering her final lesson not only to Indigo class, but also to everyone who could hear her.

"_Thank you, everyone. I'm glad I became a kyoshi._"

_Perhaps it is I learning the most this day,_ Chieko thought. _I'm an old fool, aren't I? _She turned to the director, who looked every bit as stunned as she felt, and offered a small but meaningful bow. It told him what he already knew: that this assembly was over. It did not tell him she did not intend to pursue the matter further, but perhaps he had already guessed as much.

She would leave it to the Vice Principal to cage the tiger this day, but Indigo class was a beast that could not be caged. Chieko suspected that they were already leaving the grounds, in pursuit of the man who had unexpectedly cracked her shell with nothing more than the personification of the motto she had somehow forgotten along the way.

_Love is all…_

* * *

When a knock came to her door, Chieko called for her visitor to enter. She already knew it would be the director. He slipped inside and closed the door behind him.

"I take it you have come to gloat over your victory this morning."

"Hardly a victory for either of us, is it Principal?" he said after considering her words. "This day we are all fools."

"I suppose you are right," she said meekly. She drew a breath, turning from the portrait of her late grandmother that hung on the wall over her desk. She had been staring up at it for nearly an hour, waiting for this conversation, and already the man had surprised her. Then again, after what Hibiki Amawa had done, Chieko decided that nothing could surprise her anymore. "The motion to declare Seito Sannomiya Private School an all-girl facility… is officially withdrawn."

"What a relief it is," the director said thoughtfully. "I would ask you what brought about this change of heart, but I suppose I already know the answer."

Chieko smiled. "I've been reminded of who I am at heart so little over the course of my life that when it finally struck home, there was no denying the reality of it."

"Who ever would have thought the whole of it would come from some punk college graduate looking to make a name for himself."

The Principal shook her head. "No director. Making a name for himself was hardly his intent. He worked so hard to conceal his identity. This is a man who sincerely wanted nothing more than to teach his students. He may have worked under false pretences… but in the end his actions were honorable. He came to change their lives, and that is why I must drop the motion. Didn't you see them on stage today?"

"Indeed I did. And you suspect this was a life-altering experience for them?"

"Other than their parents, there are no more influential figures in the lives of children than their teachers. Amawa was no woman, but he was most definitely a kyoshi, and he was most definitely influential on his students."

"He did leave quite the impression, I suppose," the director agreed.

"I think he left one upon me as well," Chieko admitted quietly. Her thoughts were already drifting back to that day on the balcony, and the dance that she'd never shared with the man she thought to be her own, so many years ago… before he broke her heart. Chieko ached at the memory. "We're all fools at heart. It took a fool to prove it to us."

"I do hope this means the spat between us the past twenty years is over as well."

She smiled. "Director, I am glad it is."

"Well then," he said cheerfully, suddenly seeming to stand a little taller and a little prouder than he had when she had first turned to greet him. "I suppose I should retire for the day. I'll be back in the morning to further discuss the situation."

"The situation?"

"You must agree, Principal, that the deeds Hibiki Amawa performed have not come without recourse. There is a tremendous opportunity to make this school something even more than what it is right now."

"That may be true…" Chieko murmured. She turned her gaze to the desktop. She felt a tear coming and moved a hand up to wipe it away.

"After all," the director continued, "this world we live in must always press forward. Even for us old fools who are mired in the past."

"My mother once told you that same thing, didn't she?"

The director smiled. "Of course. Many years ago."

Chieko smiled back. "My grandmother said the same thing to me, too. But I was too young… and far too naïve to understand what she was telling me. Perhaps the truth was that I didn't care. In fact, I was a student here at the time."

"Hard to believe either of us was ever that young."

"Back then," Chieko said with a wistful smile, "I truly believed my heart had wings."


End file.
